The roots of the Unitarian side of my church go back to the
Reformation era. Unitarians rejected the trinitarian dogma of the Catholic Church.
God, they said, was one, a unity, and could not, should not be divided into three parts. Of
course, that was apostate talk at the time.

Universalism dates to 17th century England where
the doctrine taught that salvation by their Christian God was available to all,
even Jews, not just those who subscribed to a particular belief system. They
believed there was no pre-determination of salvation.

Fast forward a few centuries and the Universalists joined
with the Unitarians to form a collaboration in 1961. Though both churches came
out of Christianity, the 20th century church is not considered
Christian with a capital C.

Rather, this theologically liberal church subscribes to
shared principles and covenants rather than creeds. Today, only about 20% of
UUs call themselves “Christian”. Our faith draws from many traditions and
teachers who helped shape the current church.

I come from a rural Christian church background (read that
“conservative”) and my husband was reared Catholic. It never sat right with me.
The questions I had weren’t honored, respected, nor addressed to my
satisfaction. The first time I attended a UU church, while in college decades
ago, I knew I had found something that fit me.

But it wasn’t until we had our
own children that we began regularly attending UU services. There is no better
foundation, we believe, for rearing future young people for this world’s work.

5th Principle:
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our
congregations and in society at large;

6th Principle:
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

7th Principle:
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a
part.

I have many Christian friends and family who do
not understand my choice. How can I not adhere to the tenets I was reared with?
Quite simply. My church principles mean that the world should be a better place
because I walked here.

I would not do or say differently if I
believed in Heaven and Hell. I believe you do the right thing because it is the
right thing not because of a reward or punishment at the end.

I do not know why the divinity or not of a
great teacher like Jesus should cause me to do or say differently. His
divinity--or not--simply has no impact on my actions or speech.

Many, many, many will not agree with me. But
for those of you who know me, am I less a good person because I don’t accept what
you do?

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

To clarify, in this series we will deal with character
tropes only. There are also novel writing tropes that I may or may not take on
in future. Tropes like flashbacks, describing the protag as he looks at himself
in the mirror, starting the novel describing the weather, starting the novel
with a dream sequence, or ending the novel with “it was all a dream” are often
written.

Yeah, there are those and more, but we’re not doing tropes
like that. Just characters.

And, I also want to clarify the intent is to avoid the
devolution of tropes into clichés. Tropes are not in and of themselves bad. Writers
know that character types exist in readers’ minds and that they have
expectations for a character like that.

It’s not using tropes that is the problem. The problem is
how the trope is executed. Truly, there are only so many unique story plots and
characters. The gazillions of characters we read are variations on a theme.
Characters who are multi-faceted and complex are the ones we remember, even if
the character is the evil step-sister trope.

And that’s not all bad. As I said in my earlier post in this series, tropes act as a shorthand for readers. Tropes allow you to
tell more about your character than you have to actually state. And for minor
characters, that may be good enough. The problem is the devolution to
stereotype for major characters. A character should be more than the trope. You
shouldn’t automatically describe your character as a recognizable trope because
the character is more than those elements.

So how do you switch it up?

I made a starter kit Tropes
Table taking on the stereotype of the trope and breaking the mold. Tropes
are predictable so you have to avoid devolution to the stereotype and head to
evolution in character development. In the comments, add some of your own
suggestions so we all learn from one another!

TROPES TABLE

Common Trope

Character Definition

Switch It Up

Strong Woman

This character deals with it all and lives to tell about
it. She might be temporarily defeated, but the reader knows she will triumph.

Give her not just the obvious flaw that novel conventions
require, but give her a hidden flaw that is stronger and drives her actions
and reactions.

Knight in Shining Armor

He’s the guy who saves the day. Everyone counts on the
Knight. And he never disappoints.

Make the “Knight in Shining Armor” a gal who is saved by a
man.

Damsel in Distress

She’s the one who is in over her head and can’t see a way
out. She has to rely on others for her salvation.

Make the “Damsel in Distress” a guy who is saved by a
woman.

Mentally or Physically Challenged

The trope for this one is the character overcomes the
challenge or accepts that he/she has one and adapts and is happy and is an
inspiration.

Let your character fail to overcome the challenge and
remain bitter to the end. This works best for a minor character, but it can
be used for a major one. However, out of bitterness might come a lesson for
another character.

Woman Who Needs a Man

She defines herself by her relationship with the male in
her life--or the male she is looking to include in her life. She is bland,
characterless until the man gives her a sense of worth.

Lots of badly written chick lit and romance use this
trope. It’s been done in good stories to show her without a man and realizing
she is more than she thought she was. Self-love and self-respect make her
more interesting.

Sidekick

Almost always the one with the gag lines, the comic relief
to the straight-man protag. The character has odd quirks that make him/her
hard to take, but the MC is besties with and defends the sidekick. The two
complement one another.

Make the sidekick the straight-man and give the funny
one-liners to the MC. Make the sidekick a strong, distinctive personality,
enough so you could do a spin-off book based on the sidekick as MC.

Nerd

The genius character who is misunderstood and underloved
because social ineptness hides his/her shining light.

Let the nerd find a way to demonstrate a different
persona. He/she might take improv classes and become life of the party for a
specific time. Or the nerd might be pretending to be a nerd to hide his/her
actual evil character.

“Bad Boy”

He rides a motorcycle, smokes, wears leather, and treats
women like crap. The worse he treats them, the more women seek him out. They
are attracted to a man they want to “save”.

How did your “bad boy” come up with that persona, because
it is an acquired one. Take away the props and what’s left? What if the “bad
boy” were female?

Boy/Girl Next Door

The idealized, small town, last century version of 1950s
TV is what the boy/girl next door celebrates. Honorable, caring, dependable &
smart enough without being a genius.

The perfect babysitter is discovered to be torturing
children in her care. The captain of the football team is taking drugs.
Against smoking and drinking, the girl next door sells meth to kids.

These are just a few tropes and how to change them in your
novel. What have you done to switch up your tropes?

By the way, have you seen my new website, Sharon Arthur Moore-Author? It’s still under construction,
but it looks a heckuva lot better than the old one! Drop by and let me know
what you think.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

I am delighted to welcome a fabulous author to Romance Righter today. Her brand of romance fits right in to our region. Welcome, Brenda Whiteside!

When it comes to relationships we all got 'em, we all want
'em. What do we do with'em?…in the words of one of my favorite music minstrels,
Jimmy Buffett.

In Southwest of Love
and Murder, Mason Meadowlark and Phoebe Anderson are trying to figure that
out. The old saying “opposites attract” strikes them both in the beginning.

Phoebe is a free-spirited writer. You know, the artsy kind
of lady in flowing skirts, sporting a tattoo and lots of jewelry who dates starving
artists and musicians.

Mason is a playboy rancher: work roughened hands, cowboy
boots and always a Stetson on his head. He works as hard as he plays. He’s also
from a small town and the trouble never gets more serious than an occasional
bar fight.

Then he finds out
the woman he’s attracted to, mystery writer, Phoebe, owes her success to
killing her first husband on paper seventeen years earlier.

Whoa…

Although that might put off a few men, Mason is intrigued by
Phoebe’s passions. Phoebe, on the other hand, is intrigued by Mason’s passion
for the land he ranches. Maybe they aren’t so opposite. Strip away the clothing
(they do that a few times, too) and their professions, you find two people who
share some common personality traits.

But murder? Murder gets in the way of a relationship a whole
lot more than a difference in styles.

Blurb:

Mystery writer, Phoebe Anderson, owes her success to killing
her first husband on paper seventeen years earlier. Now, someone has actually
done it. When she decides to take a few days away on the ranch of her best
friend’s brother-in-law, she doesn’t expect romance to find her...or murder to
follow her.

Mason Meadowlark is happy with his wild cowboy ways,
avoiding love since the death of his baby and the end of his marriage twenty
years ago. When Phoebe shows up, he fights to control his emotions, but soon
wonders if she just might be worth the risk of opening his heart again.

With an obsessed fan close on her heels, Phoebe is thrown
into her own murder mystery…and the next target on his list is Mason.

Excerpt :

Phoebe
shuddered and stilled.

Like the aftershocks of an earthquake,
trembling overtook her body. Her knees wobbled, but Mason caught her before she
collapsed.

“What’s wrong?” He hugged her briefly
then brought his face even with hers. “Phoebe, tell me. Why are you shaking?
What’s happened?”

“Oh my God, Mason.” She spread her hands
on his chest and glanced back at the bathroom. “Tell someone to call an
ambulance. Hurry!”

He took a step toward the ladies’ room,
but she grabbed his shirtfront. “No!” She peered around him and shouted.
“Someone call nine one one.”

Mason touched his pocket. “My cell’s in
the truck.” He grabbed the shoulder of a male customer, the closest person to
them. “You got a cell on you?”

The man nodded and pulled a phone from
his pocket.

“Call nine one one right now. There’s
been…” His face questioned her.

“Someone’s badly hurt in the bathroom. Oh
hell, hurry!” She thumped her palms against his chest.

The man pulled out his cell as he raced
into the ladies’ room.

Phoebe wrapped her arms around Mason,
tipped her chin upward, and found the words. “It’s that

waitress, Mason. Carla.”

His expression went blank, from concern
for her to no comprehension.

“There’s so much blood.” She stifled a
gag, the sweet, copper penny reek still heavy in her nostrils. “Her throat.” A
shudder rippled the length of her body. “I think she’s dead.”

Brenda spends most of
her time writing stories of discovery and love entangled with suspense. The
rest of her time is spent tending vegetables on the small family farm she
shares with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Together,
they’ve embraced an age-old lifestyle that has been mostly lost in the United
States - multiple generations living under one roof, who share the workload,
follow their individual dreams and reap the benefits of combined talents.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

is a figurative or metaphorical
use of a word or expression: he used the two-Americas trope to explain how a
nation free and democratic at home could act wantonly abroad.

• a
conventional idea or phrase : her suspicion of ambiguity was more a trope
than a fact.

There’s a ton of fact and opinion out there on tropes in
stories. Just search for trope and see what pops up. So much is out there, in fact, that this is part one.

On the one hand, tropes are very helpful if they act as a
shortcut for attitudes and behaviors. Tropes help you build in character
development with fewer words than if you avoided the trope.

For example, if in your novel you have a police officer
showing up at a house, and he says to the guy, “Billy, this is the third time
this month I’m picking you up for hitting your wife.” you know that this man is
an abuser. That he demonstrates the controlling and anger-management issues of
a serial wife-beater. That sentence saves you from having to put it into backstory.
We KNOW this man.

But, if the trope is your lazy way to incorporating stock
characters, of relying on stereotypes, who are only their trope, then you got it wrong. Each character,
wife-beater or not, deserves further development. Surprises. Inconsistencies.

Because humans are not stock characters. The wife-beater may
be a total softie around dogs. He shows them more attention, care, love than he
does humans. But that is not part of the wife-beater trope. It is part of his
inconsistent human nature.

Which, you explain, in your novel so the reader isn’t jarred
by the inconsistency and accept the trait as part of his character. In this
case, perhaps our wife-beater cowered in his bed with his puppy for comfort
while his father pummeled his mother.

I’m coming back to do more on tropes, but first, next week,
I am so happy to have guest blogger Brenda Whiteside writing about "What's a Little Murder When It Comes to Love?" Stop in and read what she has to share.